Land: An Identity and an Asset

Land is a vital resource for the Siltie. The issue of land is strongly tied also with the identity of the people as well. Literally, the Siltie call land Deche. Nevertheless, whenever the people want to associate land with identity, they call it Shegne. Shegne means one's land that can become not only a means for living and an asset, but also a final resting place.

Land has thus become an integral part of the identity of families, clans, and villages. Land is owned communally among the Siltie. Thus, the Siltie have a strong attachment to the land. A well-known Siltie proverb which reads, „ስልጤ ደችዋ ኢንዳች ዮዳን,“ which literally means „The Siltie strongly like their land and women,” also depict how land has strongly become associated with identity among the Siltie. Even until this day, key informants said²⁸that land is a cause of disagreement among the Siltie, and it is the primary source of dispute in the area. Scales of disputes are intensified in those areas which the communities or member of a family consider land as Shegne. It seems that there is a conflict of norms in this regard. This may arise owing to the introduction or transplantation of „capitalist economic practices that encourage individualism and considers land as a property to be bought and sold, which is a valuable economic asset, especially for the purpose of serving as collateral for loans“ (Tamanaha 2008:408) on one hand, and the local conception of land as a communal property on the other hand. The government declares in 1995 Act that has been enshrined in the 1995 constitution that land belongs to the

28 Interview with Ato Kaire Sule and Hajji Hussein Kedir on June 10 and July 26 /2015 Lanfuro and Misrak Azernet Wereda respectively. Siltie zone good government office and Zone High Court reports also indicate that land constitutes the primary cause of disputes reported to the state courts.

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public, and it is not allowed to sell or buy it. However, it is widely observed that land is freely sold and bought in the Siltie area and possibly beyond. In the transaction of land, we see also a clear involvement of plural legal systems. The parties involve both the state, and elders in the process. The state is, however, absent in the transaction, yet given a place in the contractual agreement between the parties. The parties indicate in the contractual paper that the state can fine one or two of a party who breaks the agreement. They use elders as witnesses and guarantee for the transactions. Informants indicate that the parties are afraid of elders' curse rather than the state's prisons whenever they are involved in the transaction. The state has become „an embedded state“ (Franz von Benda-Beckmann and Keebet von Benda-Beckmann 2006: 10) whereby the state institutions and state agents have got little significances in the local settings and hence the state is represented only symbolically. In this regard, the parties rely more on elders and informal transaction rather than a municipality or other state agents.

Despite the commercialized nature of land, one can also observe an aspect of legal pluralism in the application of land right. Both local kinship and an official form of land right claims are used in the local settings. In the countryside, the most used legal way to apply to the land right is through kin lines. A father can inherit the land to his children; especially male children are entitled to inherit the land. This may be due to the patriarchal relations that dominate the Siltie social life. Thus, with a growing population, children vie for land, and hence land has become one of the major sources of dispute among the people. This scenario strengthens the importance of lineage councils, and customary laws in the daily life of the people. Elders also resolve land disputes which are mostly tethered with individuals or elders than state agencies. This indicates the existence of normative clashes between liberal and non-liberal values.

On the other hand, the government has introduced land ownership certificate since 2008. It is also used as a means to own land privately. Due to some factors including increasing population and scarcity of land, new land distribution by the government is rarely observed. The government, however, has set up land administration committee at Qebele administration²⁹, the level which is in charge of registering land and giving ownership certificate for members of the Qebele who have already had land holding rights.

29 Kebele is the smallest administrative unit in the state administrative structure.

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It seems that the certificate has granted a person to have an exclusive right to the land. As the issue of gender becomes an important agenda, both husbands and wives are usually registered in the land ownership certificate.

However, the certificate could not resolve property right claims whenever the size of the family increases and children want to access land. It is children who are considered the instigators of property disputes that involve land dispute cases reported in the state court. According to Siltie Zone High Court report (2016/17), 2/3rd of family disputes which are brought to the tribunal are related to land. Qebele land administration committee is also involved in a land-related dispute as dispute settler. Here, family Shengo and Abotgare are most powerful local institutions which take part in the distribution and redistribution of collectively owned lands by a family. Abotgare is a male-lineage based council that is composed of a localized patrilineage circle of male- lineages that affect members in various ways, including distribution of land. It is also involved in the distribution of land and oversees dispute cases among members (Kairedin, 2012). It acts like the semi-autonomous social field that dominates the Siltie rural life. This group functions properly even if various state's controlling strategies, such as one to five organization, development groups, Qebele administration, land administration committee have been introduced by the government to control rural life. The local forums are important local dispute settlement institutions, for members of the family are strongly controlled by kinship organizations.

Thus, whenever land dispute cases are initiated, these two forums are actively engaged in calming down tensions, and if actors in the institutions are not able to solve it, clan leaders or elders will be involved. However, if the disagreement continues, the state will also be involved.

Women mainly resort to a government installed women's development group and Qebele's land administration for interventions. This happens whenever Abotgare, a men dominated institution, could not consider women as having inheritance rights owing to the patriarchal relations prevalent in the area. However, due to some gender-based interventions launched both by the government and NGOs in the past two decades, women's awareness has increased, and they have begun to challenge the status quo. It is due to this fact that elders have now seriously considered gender issue including property rights in various customary court hearings. Thus, the various government and NGOs interventions and teachings on equality of all sorts including gender

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following the introduction of global norms (Tamanaha, 2008) are now affecting rural life. It is now observed that elders are employing international laws to adjudicate disputes that involve gender cases or inheritance cases. Thus, elders are also participating in the distribution of land and women inheritance rights have got due attention by elders this time. This arises primarily because of the influence of global gender issues. One can also say that local institutions are becoming part of the transformation and even at times appropriating state's social program and hence accelerated „democracy from below“ (Franz von Benda-Beckmann and Keebet von Benda-Beckmann 2006: 9).

2.7. Local Political Life and Concept of Territoriality: An Embodiment of Modernity